Responding to the latest fire safety test results of cladding and insulation, Cllr Simon Blackburn, Chair of the Local Government Association’s Safer and Stronger Communities Board, said:

“No-one living in a high-rise block should have to live in fear about their safety. The 16 councils which own high-rise blocks with different combinations of ACM cladding and insulation have already taken steps and put in measures to reassure residents about safety.

“Councils will continue to get on with what they need to do to ensure people are safe in their homes. This includes replacing materials on high-rise blocks affected by these fire safety tests.

“The tragedy at Grenfell Tower has clearly exposed a systemic failure of the current system of building regulation. The Government must commit to meet the full cost to councils of removing and replacing cladding and insulation systems. It is also imperative that this testing process moves quickly to identify what landlords should be replacing these systems with as soon as possible.

“With these latest test fails affecting buildings owned by a range of different landlords across the country, the Government also needs to make sure there is capacity within the housebuilding industry to take quick action to carry out the scale of remedial work that looks likely to be needed.

“We also continue to call on the Building Research Establishment and the industry to release results of previous safety tests, including desktop studies. Everything must be out in the open and this needs to happen as soon as possible.”